The ‘King’s – Wimbledon’ Locomotive

On 15th February 1935, pupils and staff of King’s went down to Wimbledon Station to see ‘their’ engine: the ‘King’s – Wimbledon’, one of a series of passenger locomotives, first introduced by Southern Railway in 1930, named after public schools and thus known as the ‘Schools’ class.

‘Two hundred scarlet caps were dotted over Wimbledon station this afternoon. The boys beneath them were the juniors of King’s College School, Wimbledon, and they had come down to see their own engine – No 931 “King’s Wimbledon,” the latest of the Southern Railway “Schools” Class.

Intermittent shrieks from the engine’s whistle stilled their eager chatter as they queued up outside the platform. They were allowed on in parties of thirty – and the single hour allowed for their visit was too short by half. The scarlet caps had to be pulled off and dragged away.

In the morning, a much larger but more sedate group of seniors – in blue caps – had inspected the engine. Mr G.S. Szlumper, Assistant General Manager of the Southern Railway, who is an old King’s boy, was there and formally presented the Head Master with a scale model of the locomotive. So King’s have been luckier than Eton, Winchester, St Paul’s and others after whom engines have been named. Their only memento was a framed photograph, endorsed by the Company’s Chief Mechanical Engineer.’

(The Yorkshire Post, 16th February 1935)

The ‘Schools’ Class

In 1930 the Southern Railway introduced a new class of express passenger locomotives, designed by Richard Maunsell, the company’s chief mechanical engineer.

Although existing locomotives were suitable for much of the Southern Region, they were too large for many of the London to Kent coast routes, the tracks of which were often narrow and steep. In 1927, a River class tank engine (K class 2-6-4), on an express from Cannon Street to Deal, derailed close to Sevenoaks; the cab and some coaches hit the Shoreham Road bridge and 13 people died. Something had to be done.

Maunsell’s solution was to adopt a 4-4-0 three-cylinder design, even though these were all but obsolete by that date. His design was a triumph. The new locomotives were the most powerful engines of their type in Europe, able to move 400-ton trains at a start-stop average speed of 55mph.

Officially designated class V, as with other Southern engines, they were given names around a particular theme, in this case public schools and thus became known as the ‘Schools’ class (the formal test for what constituted a public school was if the headmaster was a member of the Headmasters’ Conference). 10 locomotives were built, and the schools after which they were named were all – roughly speaking – located close to areas served by Southern Railway: Eton, Winchester, Wellington, Charterhouse, Lancing, Tonbridge, Sherborne, Dulwich, Westminster and St Paul’s.  

They were so successful that, in 1931 more were ordered (construction was only completed in July 1934). Derek Brough (OK 1934) later recalled how he and some other railway engine enthusiasts at King’s had hoped that one of these might be named after the school. He suggested the idea to the then Head master, H. Lionel Rogers, who was appalled; to his mind, it was tantamount to ‘cheap publicity’ (see the school magazine, 1990).

The ‘King’s – Wimbledon’

In 1934, Rogers retired. The new Head master, Hubert Dixon, had no such qualms about the school’s name appearing on a railway engine. When Southern Railway decided to build an additional 10 locomotives, it was agreed that one would be named after King’s. The second engine of this final batch, the ‘King’s – Wimbledon’ No 931, was completed at Eastleigh Works in December 1934 and entered into traffic the following month.

The ‘King’s – Wimbledon’ initially ran on the Waterloo-Portsmouth line (on one occasion, pulling a 10-coach train weighing 345 tons, it reached Portsmouth in under 76 minutes). In 1937 it was moved to the Waterloo-Bournemouth line as the Portsmouth route had been electrified. When the railways were nationalised in January 1948, the engine became the property of British Railways and was renumbered 30931.

With the Kent Coast electrification and the dieselisation of the Hastings line, there was little more work for the ‘Schools’ engines to do, and the ‘King’s – Wimbledon’ was withdrawn from use in September 1961. Over its twenty-six-year life span, it had run 1,057,929 miles.

The model of the engine given to Dixon in 1935 is still in the school archive. After being removed from service, one of the brass nameplates was presented to the school by British Railways. A replica number plate was made and given to the school by Derek Brough (OK 1934). These are now displayed close to the school archive.

Amateur film footage of Gilbert Szlumper (OK 1900) presenting the model of the train to Dixon can be seen on the BFI Player.